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Marketing and advertising food products may seem unnecessary. Why would a business need to market something that everyone needs to survive? Like with any other product or service, food is marketed to attract certain customers and to increase the awareness of the company and its brand. There are some problems with marketing food, however, that need to be taken into consideration.

Choosing a Demographic

While everyone needs food and water to survive, there are often many supermarkets, convenience stores and luxury food shops for consumers to choose from. Choosing a demographic for a particular food product, like frozen vegetables, is one of the challenges businesses face. Selling low-cost or budget brand frozen vegetables may make sense in a lower-income or cost-conscious neighborhood. On the flip side, selling higher-priced frozen vegetables would make more sense in an affluent community. The real problem is to make sure the advertising matches consumer demand. If the majority of consumers are looking for moderately-priced products, it won't make sense to advertise the most expensive foods. Equally, if consumers are more discerning and have spare money to spend, advertising this week's specials on canned goods might not be the best idea either.

Perils of Being 'Trendy'

Many businesses selling food products have begun to incorporate terms such as "organic" and "fair trade" onto packaging and advertising. Organic means the food is grown without pesticides and fertilizers. Fair trade indicates that the product was produced and traded for an equitable price. While there is nothing wrong with using these terms if the products truly are organic or fair trade, there is a danger in professing to be one or both of these things if in fact it isn't true. Not only could this potentially be illegal, but it also may raise suspicions about your company's marketing and branding techniques. In fact, the makers of 26 personal care products were sued in 2011 for falsely representing the products as organic. The biggest risk in food marketing is probably in advertising fair trade or organic when only a portion of the food product meets those categories. The food itself might be fair trade, for instance, but if the packaging isn't recycled or from a reusable source, the value of the "fair trade" designation decreases.

Claims About Contents

The FDA and other consumer watchdog groups, such as the Institute of Medicine, warn food companies against making scientifically unfounded claims about and ingredients and health benefits. While products such as drugs and medical devices are regularly tested for health and safety, the same isn't always true of food. It is possible for a business to claim that its product "boosts immunity" or is low in cholesterol, for instance, when in fact there may be little or no scientific evidence behind this. Businesses using this technique may see the benefits of marketing to specific demographics interested in health foods, but doing so without proper scientific evidence may mean potential lawsuits if a consumer challenges the product.

Leveraging the Brand

The value of the brand of food products being marketed cannot be overstated. People buy names, not products. This is true even with perishable and necessary goods, such as food. Some companies use the popularity of their brand names and logos to up-sell their items. For example, terms such as "Kool-Aid" have now come to mean all kinds of flavored drink mix, even though it's actually the brand name of a particular product. The problem with this approach is that it makes it difficult for lesser-known brands and companies to enter the food marketing industry. Finding a balance between selling enough products to capture consumer attention and still harnessing the power of the brand is crucial.